Cause; There are different possibilities. This solution addresses the following unexpected cause: An MP3 or a WAV or a WMA even can be recorded at different sample rates. CDs are recorded at 44.1kHz, but an audio file can be recorded at different rates. Playback equipment can often transparently sort all this out, but doesn't always. Finale 2011b demands to work in 44.1kHz, but will load a file at 48kHz, and play it back at 44.1 without complaining! But this means the file has 48/44.1 or 9% more samples than can fit in the time finale thinks it should take! (The actual math is 48/44.1-1) So finale is playing the file slower. Imagine the first second contains 48,000 samples (which it does), but finale plays only 44,100 of those samples in the first second, so that when the next second comes, finale hasn't finished playing the first second! Finale still has 9% of the 1st second to play. Finale is behind, and when the entire length of the file has gone by, finale has not played the whole file, and it seems like the file has been cut short, which it has, even though all of its allotted time has gone by. At 44.1 the file will take 9% longer to finish.
Solution: Fortunately you do not have to understand any of that to solve this problem. But you need to burn an MP3 with software that allows you to specify a sample rate. Mine, the beautiful Cakewalk Audio Creator, which used to be Cakewalk Pyro, has an Auto setting for sample rate, but you can choose the sample rate instead. iTunes is a free program which burns MP3's and also allows you to choose the sample rate by choosing custom. I simply made a new version that was 44.1 and saved it to a folder called Finale MP3s 44.1kHz. Loaded that file instead of the 48kHz one and voila! The file played till the end!
